Well, that was just what the doctor ordered. The Hawks came out and dispatched the Cardinals with extreme prejudice. The 12th Man showed up in a manner not seen since the home opener against Green Bay and it was incredibly enjoyable to have them back. Drew Stanton was exposed as the backup quarterback he is and you could just hear the sphincters of the Cardinal faithful clenching at the thought of him trying to lead that team to playoff success. But that was Sunday. Now it's on to Thanksgiving and the renewal of the greatest rivalry in the NFL. The nation gets to wrap up its favorite day of food and football with a Seahawks-Niners tilt that's been circled on the calendar for 7 months. With that spirit of competition, let's preview the game through the competition of larger rubber balls with Dodgeball.

Well, find ourselves in a place that I don't any of us thought we'd see this year. 3 games back in the division at the Sunday before Thanksgiving. The very real possibility of missing the playoffs the year after winning the Super Bowl. National pundits going after the 12th Man in a very direct way. 12's fleeing the bandwagon like it's the Bill Cosby Fan Club. It's all been pretty sobering the last week. But, in the immortal words of Bluto from Animal House, Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! The Seahawks get the exact opportunity they need with the Birds of the Desert making their trek northward. They get the ability to bring that gap down to 2 games. They can improve their division and conference records which will almost certainly come into play when we get to the tiebreakers. Apparently Vegas believes in the Hawks as well, instilling them as 6.5 point favorites in the sports book. I think Springfield believes in the Hawks too. Let's get ready for the game through the antics of Homer, Bart, Marge, and Lisa in The Simpsons Movie.

Like many of you, I was not only disgusted by the related actions, but also weary of the onslaught of negative news through the last few months about pro athletes committing assault, child abuse, and DUIs. In true to form of the adage "If it bleeds, it leads," these stories dominated the news cycle and contributed to the further drowning of the good things pro athletes, coaches, and teams do nearly daily to positively advance our society.

Perhaps these negative stories are elevated because of the ever evolving 24 hours news cycle, but as was highlighted in July 2013 by Seahawks WR Doug Baldwin, this is not a new phenomenon to 2014.

Don't be fooled. The NFL could highlight all the great things the players do if they wanted. But bad outweighs the exponential good.

And so it begins. The home stretch of games that's been looming on the horizon for Seahawks fans the last couple months. The 7 games that could have the Hawks as a #1 seed in the playoffs, limp in as a wild card, or watching from home once January comes around. The Seahawks have the toughest remaining schedule in the NFL (and it's not close) where they'll face opponents with a combined .667 winning percentage. Maybe not the best time to have Brandon Mebane's hamstring rip apart from the rest of his body.However, the show must go on. The Hawks will get on their Delta charter this afternoon and wing their way to the City of Fountains aka Kansas City. This week, we're using an old favorite of mine. Best In Show is one of the series of mockumentaries that Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy wrote the past 20 years and is the consensus best one that they did. So let's see if we can get a fake dog show to somehow equate to a Seahawks-Chiefs matchup.

Our beloved Seahawks begin the second half of their season with a 5-3 record. I'll be honest, I didn't see that coming. I was wearing my blue-colored glasses when we started this year, particularly after that thumping the Hawks gave Green Bay to open the season. I was fully expecting to be at least 6-2 at this point, and likely 7-1. But as we all know, repeats in the NFL are rare and almost as rare is a Super Bowl-winning team actually winning a playoff game the next year. A pessimist will look at this 5-3 as a sign that the window is closing, there's no way they can win the tougher games later in the year playing like that have so far this year, and looks at the prospect of not having to buy playoff tickets as a slight silver lining. An optimist will remember that the Hawks will be getting back some key players from injury over the next few weeks, takes solace in the fact that the Hawks haven't played their best game yet but knows they can, and looks for possibilities for how they can host the NFC Championship game as a #5 seed. I say let's be optimists. Much more fun. Better for our health.Speaking of fun, we go back to the well of Leslie Nielsen classics for our preview this week. Let's see how Ted Stryker, Roger Murdock, and Captain Oveur feel about the Giants through the lens of Airplane!

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